Sports
Basketball

Raptors need to keep devolving a nasty edge

Raptors’ Amir Johnson plays tough defence against Grizzlies’ Marc Gasol on Friday. With 18 games left, the Raptors need to continue to play good team defence heading into post-season. (Craig Robertson/Toronto Sun)

Knocked around in Brooklyn when the game took on a playoff-like feel, the Raptors responded by flexing their muscles against visiting Memphis.

Now comes the hard part of maintaining that style of play, setting hard screens, boxing out, beating your man to a spot, fighting through screens and attacking the basket.

For the Raptors, 18 games remain before the NBA’s second season begins, a place that isn’t assured, but one that’ll soon be made official.

For now, all the Raptors need to do, and must do, is take care of their own house and allow the outside world to figure magical numbers and potential post-season scenarios.

In the NBA, it has often been said that good teams get favourable calls, elite players allowed to take an extra step and basically push the envelope with officials.

The fact remains that good teams establish a style of play and the league is a star-driven league where the truly elite do get the benefit of the doubt.

There is no elite player on the Raptors roster, no LeBron James or a Kevin Durant, but the need to establish a physical game and maintain it for an extended stretch will catch the attention of officials.

As well as second-year centre Jonas Valanciunas played in Friday’s 99-86 win over the Grizzlies, recording his fourth 20-point game of the season in leading all scorers with 23 points, he needs to be just as assertive and aggressive against the Suns on Sunday.

Memphis allowed Valanciunas to roll to the basket too easily, yielding too many open looks Big V would capitalize.

Having now seen video of the game, the Suns, who practised at Toronto’s ACC facility Saturday after the local hoopsters had completed their session, are going to make the necessary adjustments.

No one should ever get caught up in Valanciunas pouring 20 points when his primary purpose is to defend, rebound and run the floor.

When he’s able to go off for a season-high output, it’s a bonus.

What should always be expected is physical, hard basketball, the kind of basketball that leads to advancement in the post-season, coupled with the presence of shot makers.

Head coach Dwane Casey has been around the NBA block long enough to know how officials are now gearing up for the post-season.

The word playoffs is seldom uttered in Raptorland, but it’s an inevitability, ending a period of utter frustration and futility, but maintaining a level of physicality is crucial.

“We have to adjust to that,’’ said Casey of officials now more aware of playoff-type basketball. “We have to play physically on defence and on offence.

“You have to take care of yourself and not expect the officials to bail you out.”

The Suns don’t have the brawn of a Memphis and nor do they have the playoff pedigree of a Nets team built for the upcoming playoffs.

But Phoenix is no push-over, a team that beat the Raptors back in early December.

With guard Eric Bledsoe back in the starting unit following a lengthy injury absence, this lock-down defender sets the tone.

The Suns have held opponents to fewer than 90 points seven times this season, five with Bledsoe in the lineup.

Against Memphis, the Raptors used a 12-0 run in the fourth quarter to pull away from their visitors.

On Sunday, the Raptors can’t afford a slow start reminiscent of Friday’s aborted effort against the Grizzlies, who abused the home side on the boards.

It’s getting physical in the NBA at this time of the calendar season and it will only increase as the regular season soon makes way for the post-season.

The Raptors have to put together a stretch of games where their physical play never wavers from the opening tap to the final buzzer.

DEROZAN BECOMING A FINE SHOOTER

The more one watches DeMar DeRozan shoot his shot, the more one marvels at the strides Toronto’s all-star guard has made during his time as a Raptor.

There’s confidence in his stroke, variety in how he gets his shot off, savvy in reading pick and roll defences and a product that is clearly moving in the right direction.

Once he’s able to handle the basketball better and make better decisions out of double teams and once he’s able to establish a defensive identity, DeRozan is well on his way to taking his game to a new level.

His stroke, though, has allowed him to become a good scorer.

Nothing fundamental has changed in DeRozan’s technique, a notion he dismisses.

“I think all that is made up,’’ said DeRozan. “Move your hand a certain way, that doesn’t mean anything. It (improvement) comes with repetition, getting stronger, but most of all it’s repetition and getting up a lot of shots.”